Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 9.djvu/204

468 equalled, or perhaps even surpassed the reputation he had won as a barrister; "In the civil court," it is stated in a short notice of his life, "his judgments were admirable for teaming and sagacity; and on the bench of the criminal court his dispassionate weighing of evidence, his sound appreciation of the rules of law, the impressive solemnity of his charges on great occasions, carried a conviction, and gained a confidence, which the people of Scotland have not always yielded to their judges." Before his elevation to the bench he had also risen to high public mark and importance, independently of his professional displays, by his speeches at public meetings, on affairs both political and ecclesiastical. This was especially the case at the great meeting held in Edinburgh in favour of Catholic Emancipation; and when Dr. Chalmers and Lord Jeffrey delivered their eloquent and memorable speeches on that important occasion, the first resolution had been previously moved and enforced with great power by Sir James Moncreiff. It was, however, as a member of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland that his great talents for investigation and debate, combined with his well-known integrity, were chiefly valued; so that, on several important occasions, he was called to lead the deliberations of that august body.

So close a connection with the church, and such a hearty devotedness to its interests, which marked the professional career of Lord Moncreiff, is not to be wondered at when we remember his clerical descent through not less than seven generations! Like his father, also, he adhered to that party in the church known by the title of Evangelical, in opposition to the Moderate side, which might be called the Toryism of the Scottish Kirk. While he held the office of a ruling elder, his attendance at church courts was frequent and his aid effectual, and he had the satisfaction to witness the rise, from year to year, of those principles of religious doctrine and ecclesiastical polity with which he was connected. At length, when his party had acquired such strength as to bring their controversy to a decisive issue upon the great question of patronage, he was called, in 1832, to give evidence before a select committee of the House of Commons, which was appointed to inquire into the origin and exercise of church patronage in Scotland. His lordship's answers to the searching questions which were put to him on his examination, the flood of light which he threw upon this difficult subject, and the simple, earnest, impressive language and manner in which his testimony was delivered, were long afterwards remembered. For a considerable time before the Disruption he had retired from the conflict in consequence of his judicial position ; and when at last it occurred, in 1843, his attention was too mournfully engrossed by the death of his lady, which happened at the same period, to allow him to join in the events of that great movement. After the Disruption, although he ceased to be an elder, he continued to hold church-membership in the Free Church of Scotland, with whose leading principles his whole course of life had been identified.

On nearing the venerable age of seventy-five, Lord Moncreiff began to yield to the decay of nature; and for several weeks before he died, the state of his health was such, that although the physicians held out hopes of his recovery, he felt assured that his end was at hand a result which he contemplated without dismay, and for which he prepared with Christian resignation and confidence. His death occurred at his house in Moray Place, Edinburgh, on the afternoon of March 30, 1851, and his remains were interred in the Dean Cemetery, within a few feet of the grave of his old friend, Lord Jeffrey. His character is thus briefly and emphatically summed up by Lord Cockburn: "I am